The role of Identity in the Story of the Hour, by Kate Chopin - Research Paper Example

Name Instructor Class 23 June 2011 Identity in Chopin’s Story of An Hour The Story of an Hour depicts the gender conditions of women during Kate Chopin’s time. Mrs. Mallard just receives news that her husband is dead and she weeps over her loss. Inside her room, however, something beckons her…

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Mallard sees her husband is alive after all. This paper analyzes identity formation and gender identity in the Story of an Hour. It is a story revolving around the themes of marriage and bondage. The story demonstrates that a wife’s identity is no identity at all, because it is defined by her gender and status beneath her husband, and wives like Mrs. Mallard would rather choose death over the life of “becoming” a woman in a man’s world. A wife’s identity is no identity at all, because it is a product of gender roles and expectations. All Mrs. Mallard’s life, she is Mrs. Mallard, and this is not an identity she can call her own. As a protagonist, she does not even have a specific name in the beginning of the story. She is only Mrs. Mallard, defined by her relation to her gender and husband. Her real name, Louise, is revealed only at the end of the story, when her sister worries about her bereavement in her room and asks her to open the door. But it can be analyzed that even Louise comes from the word Louie. She remains a product of her gender, a woman who is meant to do housework all her life and be a servant to men and her family. Being a woman during these times means a world of “repetition” of servitude. ...
(qtd. in Deutscher 328). Mrs. Mallard also knows this for a fact, which is why when she learns that she is free, she knows that the days of repetitive domestic tasks are gone forever. In her mind, she sees images of different seasons, all spent for herself: “Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own” (Chopin). When someone dreams of days becoming her own, one would feel that depth of servitude it must be to be a woman. And so in a span of an hour, Mrs. Mallard transforms into Louise, the free woman. She is her own woman, and she no longer has to be the wife of someone else. This idea of becoming a woman in her own terms can be gleaned from the symbols of empowerment in the story, such as songs and birds: “The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves” (Chopin). The song represents the song of freedom from bondage, while the sparrows are symbols of freedom and autonomy. Louise can flutter using her wings, and finally, fly away from being a traditional woman. Being a wife kills self-identity, since it is only defined by the social identity of being a wife, a slave of a husband. A social identity is “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his [sic] knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups)” and the importance placed on that membership (Tajfel 255 qtd. in Sacharin, Lee, and Gonzalez 275). But as a wife, Mrs. Mallard finds no importance in that membership. Essentially, she does not even love her husband: “And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” (Chopin). She does not even love this man she calls her husband, but she has to stick with
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Written by Kate Chopin, in 1894 the story evokes the true sentiment of a short story and focuses on the momentary illusion and the emotional turmoil faced by a man under the momentary evocation of sentiments and passions (Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1-3). Multitudes of critical analysis and appreciation of the text have evolved a number of times at different levels.

Like many of Nadine’s other stories, this short story describes the cruelty inflicted by racial segregation in South Africa during the apartheid period. Nadine is famous for writing about how government’s strict measures have affected the lives of both white and black individuals, particularly in South Africa.

The Story of an Hour. Throughout the course of history we find that women were granted lesser equal rights and opportunities to pursue their personal and professional lives or careers. The reason for such generalization was due to women being regarded as images of motherhood and therefore their primary duty was directed towards bearing children and looking after them.

Through her characterization of Louise, Chopin portrays a picture of a sympathetic woman with strength and insight; who is unable to translate her new- found freedom into an effective realization which ultimately leads her to an untimely death caused by her “monstrous joy”.

However, as Chopin points out again and again in her short stories and novels, this led to a condition in which women were not able to seek the full expression of their characters in deference to fulfilling their proper roles as wives and mothers. They lived lives of desperation, never able to fully express or explore their own inner inclinations.

Mrs. Mallard was a typical 19th – century young woman, who suffered the oppressive fate of having to bend to the will of a highly patriarchal society. She was weak-willed and most likely did whatever was expected of

“The Story of an Hour” was written by Kate Chopin in 1894, and it is one of the most famous stories of Chopin, along with “The Storm” which was published in 1898. Kate Chopin’s stories are known to be centered on female protagonists.

The two short stories revolve women oppression in the late 19th Century as well as how women fought to achieve freedom and recognition. In the two stories, the author brings into attention that women were prone to death as many were denied their rights in the society.

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